A GeoReferenced

INTERNATIONALJOURNALOF GEOMATICSANDGEOSCIENCES
Volume2,No 2,2011
Copyright2010AllrightsreservedIntegratedPublishingservices
Researcharticle
ISSN0976 4380
AGeoReferencedInformationSystemforTourism(GeoRIST)
SunilPratapSingh,JitendraSharma,PreetvantiSingh
DepartmentofPhysicsandComputerScience,FacultyofScience
DayalbaghEducationalInstitute(DeemedUniversity)
Dayalbagh,Agra282005 (INDIA)
sunil_pratap@rediffmail.com
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a georeferenced information system (GeoRIST) for national and
internationaltouristsorthetravellingcommunityvisitingtoAgraenablingthemtofindtheir
interest in city and ask for information about sights, accommodations and other places of
interestwhicharenearbythembyanalyzinganddisplayingthetourismobjectsingeographic
contextoninteractivetouristmaps.ThedevelopedsystemistheapplicationofInternetbased
GeographicInformationSystem(GIS)which integratesspatialdatabase,statisticaldataand
textual information in order to develop a data model providing proper and complete
information for analysis and planning. The whole system lives in a common webbased
applicationimplementedinASP.NetwithC#.NetMapScript,AjaxandexploitingMapServer
for GIS functionalities and PostGIS for its connection with the PostgreSQL database
containing road network, infrastructure of the area and data about hospitality, tourism
activitiesandfacilities.
Keywords: Tourism, Information System, Spatial Database, Geographical Information
System (GIS), TravelAdvice,MapServer.
1.Introduction
Therehasbeenahugedevelopmentininformationtechnologyrecently.BothtourismandIT
increasingly provide strategic opportunities and powerful tools for economic growth,
redistribution of wealth and development of equity around the globe. The tide of
informationization and network, which is represented by Internet, has given an excellent
opportunitytothetourismindustry.
As history of Agra (figure 1) is amply evident from the numerous historical monuments in
andaroundthecity,itisaleadingdestinationfortourists.Itachievedfameasthecapitalof
theMughalemperorsfrom1526to1658andremainsamajortouristdestinationbecauseof
itsmanysplendidMughalerabuildings,mostnotablytheTajMahal,AgraFortandFatehpur
Sikri, all three of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Undoubtedly, oneof the most
attractiveaspectsofAgrastourismisbeinghometooneoftheSevenWondersoftheWorld
TheTajMahal.
The historical sites, cultural monuments, beautiful nature parks and garden are among the
interesting features making itauniquedestination forthenationaland internationaltourists
desiring an eventful trip. Thousands of national and international tourists visit various
historical monuments every day and it can be both exciting and freighting for the tourists
coming to Agra. Nonavailability of comprehensive realtime spatial database of city
infrastructure, locationbased services and lack of technology driven and demand driven
approaches result in tribulations of comprehensive trip plan, travel advice, interactive
searchingoftheplacesofinterestandlocatinghealthorotherrequiredfacilitiesinemergency.
Submittedon September 2011publishedon November2011
456
Figure1:StudyArea
Geographic Information Systems help in making effective decisions through modeling and
mapping our world. GIS is a system of computer hardware, software, and procedures
designed to support the compiling, storing, retrieving, analyzing, and display of spatially
referenced data for addressing, planning and management problems. In addition to these
technical components, a complete GIS also includes a focus on people, organizations, and
standards. Internet GIS provides a perfect tool to access, disseminate and visualize tourism
data.AnyinformationthatcanbedisplayedonadigitalmapcanbevisualizedusingInternet
GIS.TherapidgrowthoftheInternetprovideshighlycustomized,accessibleandinteractive
sourceofpublicinformationandischangingthewaysthatpeoplecaptureandmanipulatethe
spatial information. The implementation of Internet based GIS will provide interactive
mappingandspatialanalysiscapabilitiesforenhancingpublicparticipationandcollaboration
in decision making processes. Also, the capabilities of Internet based GIS will made it
possibletoanswerspatialqueriesusingintelligentmapswithintegratedimages,text,tables,
diagramsandshowinglocation ofhotels,touristsites,pointsofinterest,andsoforth.
2.LiteratureReview
GISisbothadatabasesystemwithspecificcapabilitiesforspatiallyreferenceddataaswell
asasetofoperationsforanalyzingthedata.Theabilitytodevelophigherlevelthinkingand
problem solving through the use of GIS gives a better understanding for decision based
systems. GIS is a valuable tool for managing, decision making, analyzing, and displaying
large volumes of diverse data pertinent to many local and regional planning activities
(Avdimiotis and Christou, 2006). Its use in environmental planning is rapidly increasing.
Tourism is an activity highly dependent on environmental resources. It is also a
phenomenon,whichintheeventofalackofplanningandmanagementislikelytoerodeits
environmental base. Mcadam (1999) discussed the value and scope of GIS in tourism
planningandarguedthatGISbringssignificantaddedvaluetodecisionmakingthroughdata
analysis,modelingandforecasting.
Berger et al (2007) described an eTourism environment based on a communitydriven
approach to foster a lively society of travelers who exchange travel experiences, and
recommend tourism destinations. Idris and Yahaya (2009) discussed the design and
implementation of a tourismweb information systemby using web aggregation as the core
engine. Anderson and Souleyrette (2002) recommended an approximate dynamic modeling
approach to assess traveler information technology deployment by integrating a regional
InternationalJournalofGeomaticsandGeosciences
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457
travel demand model and microsimulation package in a GIS environment. Minagawa and
Nami(1999)appliedGIStolocateareassuitablefortourismdevelopmentatLombokIsland
in Indonesia. Turk and Gumusay (2004) carried out GIS design and network analysis by
taking advantages of GIS possibilities for tourism. The study was carried out in Eminonu
district,wheretherearealotofhistoricalandtouristplaces.Othmanetal(2010)addressed
the use of GIS technology in developing a database and analyzing data associated with the
tourist accommodations in the east coast states of Malaysia Pahang, Terengganu and
Kelantan. Feick and Hall (2000) focused on applying Geographic Information System
technologywithin acustomizedsoftwaredesigntoallow multipleparticipants from various
sectorsinWestBayDistrictofGrandCayman,BritishWestIndiestodesignatelandparcels
appropriate for tourismrelated development or for a competing land use. Dye and Shaw
(2007) presented a GISbased spatial decision support system (SDSS) application by
integratingGISfunctionsandSDSSdesignswitheasytousegraphicuserinterfacestohelp
visitorsofGreatSmokyMountainsNationalPark(GSMNP)chooseandplantheiractivities
moreeffectivelytomatchtheirpersonalpreferencesandconstraints.
OlafsdottirandRunnstrom (2009)developedamethodologytogenerateaTourismDecision
SupportSystem(TDSS)toaidplanningofsustainabletourism.AGISmodelwasdeveloped
based on classification of identified impact factors and variables, as well as selected
classification algorithms. Bertazzon et al (1997) discussed the theoretical possibilities of
usingTGISfortraditionaltourismmarketingpurposesandalsoprovidedadetailedaccount
of the Internet usageto incorporate GISbased models and graphics as a marketing tool for
the Alberta Ski Resort industry. By using a hedonic prices model, Yolanda and Hernndez
(2011) estimated the influence of some spatial and environmental variables in the rental
pricesofruralhousesinGranCanaria,Spainandrecommendedthatthismodelcouldhelpto
orientatethetouristdiversificationpoliciesappliedtotheisland.Themailcapabilitiesofthe
GIS are to integrate large volumes of spatial and nonspatial data and enhance problem
understandingthroughdatavisualizationintheformofmaps.
Inthispaperageoreferencedinformationsystem (GeoRIST)fortourismhasbeendeveloped
tocustomizetouristsindividualneedsandpreferencesandbeavailabletothemwhilebeing
onthemove.
3.DevelopmentofGeoReferencedInformationSystemforTourism(GeoRIST)
Geographical informationsystem (GIS) and tourism share a common characteristic, that is,
both cross the boundaries of disciplines and application areas. As tourism destinations are
characterized by three different landscape features: points, lines, and polygons, the system
usespointfeaturesforindividualtouristattractions,forexample,acampgroundinapark,or
a historic site along the highway. Coastal beaches and resortsoften follow a linear pattern,
while big theme parks or natural parks are characteristics of a polygon feature. These
locationalattributesareessentialtoageographicinformationsystem. Thedevelopedsystem
(GeoRIST) will strengthen tourism planning by integrated GIS and will help in extracting
differentsetsofinformationfromamapandusethemasrequired.Figure2demonstratesthat
howthetouristwillinteractwiththedevelopedsystem.
3.1 SystemArchitecture
There are basically two types of architectures followed by the geographical information
systemapplications:clientsideandserverside.
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458
Figure2:Interactionbetween touristandGeoRIST
Serversidearchitectureallowsusers(clients)tosubmitrequestfordataandanalysis
toawebserver.Serverprocessestherequestandreturnsdataorsolutiontotheremote
client.
Clientside architecture allows the user to perform some data manipulation and
analysislocallyontheirmachines.
GeoRIST is a serverside application following threelayer architecture with user interface

layer,logiclayeranddatalayer.Theuserinterfacelayertranslatestasktohelptouristseasily
knowtheinformationrelatedtotourism.Thistopmostlevelofapplicationstructureinteracts
withotherlayersbyprovidingresultstoallotherlayersinthecomputingnetwork.Thelogic
layer controls the operation of the application by processing commands, evaluating and
calculating specific data. The information from user interface layer is later stored in the
databaseserversofthedatalayerandthisstoredinformation isthentransferredbacktothe
logiclayerforfurtherprocessingandultimatelytotheuserscomputersystem.
Thisarchitectureabsorbsthesubstantialloadsfromthenetworksincealotofrequestsdonot
reach the server but the different layers which are loosely coupled with each other and
changesmadeinonedonothamperperformanceofothersandassiststheusersinperforming
theirjobsefficientlyandeffectively.
3.2 DatabaseDesign
The geographical information system data involves both the spatial data and attribute data
thespatialdatabeingadatabasethatisinsomewayreferencedtolocationsontheearththat
describes the spatial properties of the objects and attribute data consisting of additional
information like images, texts etc to the spatial data. GIS can be regarded as the high
technology equivalent of map in the field geography. An individual map contains a lot of
informationwhich isused indifferentwaysbydifferentindividualsandorganizations.Map
represents the means of locating oneself in relation to the world reference point. In the
traditional form, a map suffers from a number of problems. Firstly maps are static and
thereforedifficultandexpensivetokeeptodate.Secondly mapsexistatdiscretesheetsand
thereforethe areasof interestof a map use lies on the cornerof the four adjacent.Thirdly,
mapsareoftenverycomplexandmayrequireanexperttoextractaparticulardatawhichare
ofinterest.
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459
Figure3:OrganizationofGeoReferencedInformation System (GeoRIST)

Inordertoovercometheaboveproblemsofmaps,thedigitalmapsaredevelopedintheform
ofshapefilesforvarioustourismfacilitieslikehotels,pointsofinterests,roads,andhistorical
monuments using DIVAGIS and Quantum GIS (opensource GIS for mapping and
geographic data analysis) to provide enhanced cartographic representation. Quantum GIS
provides flexibility, allowing a paper map to be quickly produced which exactly meets the
needsoftheuser.UsingPostGISloadertheseshapefilesareconvertedtotheircorresponding
tables in a PostgreSQL database which is structured to follow a relational database model
format.Theattributeinformationrelatingtothesemaplayersandtourismfacilitiesislinked
totheirrespectivespatialfeatures.
3.3 UserInterface
The user interface design makes the user's interaction as simple and efficient in terms of
accomplishingusergoals.Itallowstheuserstoselectandinputthequerycriteriainorderto
view the required tourism data. In the GeoRIST, which is developed using ASP.Net with
C#.Net Mapscript (a scripting interface for MapServer), Ajax and MapServer (open source
webmapping),theuserinterfaceismadeupofaseriesof.aspxfiles,whicharerenderedto
thebrowserusingstandardHTML.Designingtheuserinterfaceistheprocessof:
Decidingwhichpagesarerequiredandinwhatsequenceitisrequired
Populatingthosepageswiththeappropriatecontrols
Figure 4 demonstratesone of the views of GeoRISTs user interface with functionalities of

zooming, panning, querying, layer selection on map and various navigational links on it
enablingtheuserstoviewthetourismmapandassociateddatawithadjustablescale.
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460
Figure4:UserInterfacewithMap
3.4 SystemComponents
GeoRISTisformedbyfivedifferentcomponentprograms:
MinnesotaMapServer6.0.1GISengine
InternetInformationServer(IIS)6
Abrowser
PostgreSQL 8.4DBMS
PostGIS 1.5 DBspatiallyenablingsupport.
Normally a webbased GIS can be implemented using GIS engine, web server and web
browser but PostgreSQL and PostGIS are used to store the data as database tables in
particular.
3.4.1 MapServer
MapServer 6.0.1 is an open source geographic data rendering engine (program) created by
University of Minnesota and now it is a project of OSGeo (Open Source Geospatial
Foundation). It can run as a Common Gateway Interface (CGI) program or via MapScript
which support several programming language and C#.Net in particular. It acquires and
processes requests coming from the users and returns themoutput results. The heart of the
MapServerisaMapfilewhichdefinestherelationshipsbetweenobjectspointsMapServerto
where data are located and defines how things are to be drawn. It is implemented using
MapServersoftwaresbuiltinobjectorientedscriptinglanguagewithwhichitispossibleto
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461
designhowtocreateandusethemapsandtheirlayers.Inparticular,layerobjects,pathsand
connectiontypesfordataloadingarespecifiedintheMapfile.
3.4.2 InteractionofPostgreSQLandPostGISwithMapServer
Because the tourism and GIS data has been stored in PostgreSQL database tables,
PostgreSQL becomes an indispensable system component from which the GeoRIST loads
datatobedisplayedinthemaps.
Figure5:Interaction ofPostgreSQLandPostGISwithMapServer
This loading ispossibleonlywhenthetablesaregeoreferenced.ForthiseachPostgreSQL
table has been provided with a geometry column, in which every record has its spatial
description. This geometry column has been added using the PostGIS functions making a
table as spatial tables. These tables are called by MapServer using the Mapfile PostGIS
connection. Therefore, for loading spatial tables it is enough to specify in a Mapfile layer
object:thePostGISconnectiontheconnectionparametersthenameofthespatialtableand
its geometry column and the loading filter (SQL query). In this way MapServer accesses
PostGIS/PostgreSQL data like any other PostgreSQL client and it can display PostgreSQL
tables features using PostGIS as spatial enabling support. The coupling of MapServer to
PostgreSQL/PostGISenablesthetouriststomanipulateorquerythespatialtablesandbeable
toseetheresultsusingMapServermaps.
4. ResultsandDiscussion
The developed system is a georeferenced information system based on Internet that is
capable of answering questions about where facilities and resources are located and thus
representsenormousbenefits.Itwillprovidethetouriststoanswerthefundamentalquestions
thataffectmuchofhumanendeavorlike:Whereisit?HowdoIgetthere?by:
Displayingmaplayerswithassociatedinformationwithadjustablescale
Interactivesearchingoftheplacesofinterestlikehotels,cinemas,offices,parkinglots
etc.onmap
Proximityanalysis(locatingclosestavailablefacilitysuchasoffices,hospitalsetc.on
map)
Providing a cost effective means to disseminate useful geographically referenced
informationtothetargetusers
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462
Accessing through a wide range of Internet enabled electronic media like desktop
computerathome,officesandshops,pocketPCs,andsmartphones
Providing a standard way to access to GIS data and functions across the network,
fromanylocationandbyanyuser,withouttheneedtobuyexpensiveGISsoftware
The implementation of such a system for tourism will provide almost unlimited access to
informationtoeverybody,whohastechnicalpossibilitiestoconnectwiththeInternethelping
themintakingbetterdecisionstoplantheiritineraryinAgra.
5.References
1. Anderson M. D. and Souleyrette R. R. (2002). Pseudodynamic travel model
applicationtoassesstravelerInformation,Transportation,29,pp307319.
2. AvdimiotisS.andChristouE.(2006).GISApplicationsinTourismPlanning:ATool
for Sustainable Development Involving Local Communities, 23rd EuroChrie
Conference,Paris.
3. BergerH.,DittenbachM.,MerklD.,BogdanovychA.,SimoffS.,andSierraC.(2007).
OpeningnewdimensionsforeTourism,VirtualReality,11,pp7587.
4. Bertazzon S., Crouch G., Draper D. and Waters N. (1997). GIS Applications in
TourismMarketing:CurrentUses,anExperimentalApplicationandFutureProspects,
JournalofTravel&TourismMarketing,6(34),pp3559.
5. Dye A. S. and Shaw S. (2007). A GISbased spatial decision support system for
touristsofGreatSmokyMountainsNationalPark,JournalofRetailingandConsumer
Services,14,pp269278.
6. Feick R. D. and Hall G. B. (2000). The Application of a Spatial Decision Support
SystemtoTourismBasedLandManagementinSmallIslandStates,JournalofTravel
Research,39(2),pp163171.
7. IdrisA.Z.andYahayaN.A.(2009).DesignandImplementationofanAggregation
based Tourism Web Information System, International Journal of Computer Science
andNetworkSecurity,9(12),pp143148.
8. Mcadam D. (1999). The Value and Scope of Geographical Information Systems in
TourismManagement,JournalofSustainableTourism,7(1),pp7792.
9. Minagawa Y. and Nami T. (1999). The Application of Geographic Information
SystemstoTourismDevelopmentPlanning:ACaseStudyofSiteSelectioninLombok
Island,Indonesia,RegionalDevelopmentStudies,5,pp139159.
10. OlafsdottirR.andRunnstrom M.C.(2009).AGISApproachtoEvaluatingEcological
SensitivityforTourismDevelopmentinFragileEnvironmentsACaseStudyfromSE
Iceland,ScandinavianJournalofHospitalityandTourism, 9(1),pp2238.
11. Othman A.G.,MohamedB.,Bahauddin A.,SomA.P.M.andOmarS.I.(2010).A
Geographic Information System Based Approach for Mapping Tourist
Accommodations in the East Coast States of Malaysia, World Applied Sciences
Journal,10,pp1423.
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12. Turk T. and Gumusay M. U. (2004). GIS Design and Application for Tourism,
International Archives of Photogrammetry Remote Sensing and Spatial Information
Sciences,35(4),pp485488.
13. Yolanda S. and Hernndez J. M. (2011). Spatial and environmental characteristics of
rural tourism lodging units, Anatolia: An International Journal of Tourism and
HospitalityResearch,22(1),pp89101.
Volume2Issue 2,2011
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INTERNATIONALJOURNALOF GEOMATICSANDGEOSCIENCES

Submittedon September 2011publishedon November2011

GeoRIST is a serverside application following threelayer architecture with user interface

Figure3:OrganizationofGeoReferencedInformation System (GeoRIST)

Figure 4 demonstratesone of the views of GeoRISTs user interface with functionalities of

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